Mutants and Hybrids
by hammerQueen
Summary: After the turtles have defeated the Kraang Prime it is time for celebration. But after weird mutilated animals start appearing on the streets of New York. Soon after people start disappearing, as close as in Roosevelt high school. What can the turtles do to stop it?
1. Lump Your Shells

AN: I revised this 1st chapter, fixed some typos and changed the content a bit. Sorry it's bit short. Still getting the hang of writing and stuff .u. As I get more experienced the longer they'll get.

**Chapter 1: Lump Your Shells**

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It was bliss. They had finally defeated the Kraang, the Technodrome, the Kraang Prime. Splinter had told them the Shredder was gone, after losing all his sense of honor and not daring to come back for them anymore. The Purple Dragons had stepped down, too. Whether the reason behind it was the Shredder's loss or the near-alien-invasion-experience – it didn't matter. All that mattered was that everyone was okay; safe and sound. What else could they ask for?

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The weird animal hybrids were nothing at the start. And it was Mikey who had noticed the first one; a rat with some pair of bird wings. When he had landed on the roof next to it, he had alarmed his brothers for the finding. Donnie had commented that it wasn't just random bird wings, but pigeon wings, to be exact, that the rat somehow possessed.

"And it's obvious this isn't a natural animal, somebody have had to create it."

"What does it even matter anymore? 'S a dead rat with wings, 'sall." Raph said, nudging the animal with his leg, proving it was indeed dead. "'S not like it could do anythin' even if it was alive."

"That would mean the creator would be somewhere around here or so, and it's important to be accurate." Don replied, examining the rat bit closer and musing to himself: "But it looks like the experiment failed, I can't see any external damages on this-"

"Ratgon!" Mikey exclaimed: "Cause it's half rat and half pigeon!" he smiled. He though that maybe if he found another ratgon, he could keep it as a pet, and the idea made him giggle. That way Ice Cream Kitty could get a friend and it wouldn't have to be all alone when the turtles went out. But then the thought of Rat King came to him, and decided it would probably be a bad idea. But they were half pigeon, so wouldn't that clear the rat-ness of the ratgon? He should ask that from Donnie at some point.

"Yeah, we get it, Mikey." Donnie said, bit annoyed that he got interrupted in the mids of his hypothesis of how the ratgon possibly existed. Or rambling, as Leo and Raph saw it. "If there are no external damages it must mean they are internal."

"Do you think you want to take that to the lair? Maybe find something useful?" Leo asked. He thought that even if Kraang was defeated, the thing laying in front of the four could be one of Kraang's old projects. Or one of the works of the scientist the Kraang had kidnapped.

"I don't see a problem with that. Anyone can spot a bag or something for this? It looks filthy." Donnie received a small box from Raph who had noticed it from a balcony nearby. "I'm not that experienced with biology, but as from first glimpse I'd say this isn't work of a novice." Don muttered to himself when putting the hybrid into the box: "Oooh! Now I can't get to wait to look into it more closely!" All the while Donnie checked quick that there was no tracking devices on the creature. Being bit careful never hurt anybody.

"Hey, Mikey" Raph elbowed the youngest: "I spot something nerd-y."

"I love games! Wait, wait, I know this! Is iiiiiii-" Mikey dragged: "-iiiiiiiitt... Donnie!?" he pointed at the him, looking for answer from Raph.

"Three points for you, Mikey!"

The youngest just laughed heartily and Raph joined in, his laugh having more impish sound in it. Donnie ignored the teasing, his thoughts running on the little dead thing he now carried in the Chinese take out box. Leo called out to his brothers: one last round around the are and they would head back to the lair.

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AN: Yeah, the story takes place right after the first season's finale. And this is an AU. And it'll get more exciting, I support slow(-ish) beginnings. And Raph has an accent?

_~hammerQueen_


	2. Everywhere We Go

AN: FYI: I have placed the turtles, their lair and all the happening into the Staten Island of NYC. It's the most logical choice in my opinion. Like they _seriously_ would be in Manhattan's Midtown.

Disclaimer: I do not own the turtles .n.

Warning(s): slight swearing, gross and bloody things

**Chapter 2: Everywhere We Go**

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The turtles were skating outside again, each showing off to others and doing more daring tricks as they went on on their daily (or night-ly, in this case) route. As the Kraang was out of the picture, they could put all their attention into Purple Dragons. It's not like they had become active all of a sudden: one crime there, other mugging here. But they did become more lively as time went on. It also seemed they had separated themselves from the Shredder and Foot Clan all together, consentrating only gathering more space for themselves. Though, no rivaling gangs were present, so it was an easy task for the Dragons.

Shouts of excitement broke the ratehr silent night of the streets. The Staten Island was the least populated part of the New York City, and most of the people lived in the northern part of the region, anyway. The streets weren't filled with people during nights in the middle part of the island, leaving the brothers with freedom to move after sundown rather loudly.

"Woohoo"

"Yeah, look at this!"

"Ha ha haaa!

"Awesome!"

"Dammnit, kids! Shut the hell up an' let the people sleep, ya hear!"

Sometimes their cheerful yells aroused some normal folk to shout from their balconies or windows. Those who did complain about the noise never saw anythigh, of course. The boys with their racket would have gone past and would already be jumping one the next roofs. Only their highened senses would tell them that their movement was sometimes noticed but the turtles had great trust in their own skills to make sure that none was _actually_ seen.

Often, after hearing a complaint of a stranger, Leo and Donnie tuned down their volume a tad. In Raph and Mickey the reaction was opposite, the fromer enjoying tormenting people a little. He then proceeded to make bigger jumps (which caused more noice when landing to a roof) and dared Mickey to follow and make loud tricks, as well. Would the younger succeed or fail only lead Raph to give a laugh, enjoying the fact that he had managed to get another reaction from another angry fellow downstairs (it didn't matter to Raph was it after him or Mickey that the yell occured).

In the former's case, he just enjoyed his life and fell easily into Raph's dares. Mickey just really liked showing off his skills with skating, because he was _ultimately _the best of the four. A triumph he was very proud of.

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In the following nights the cheeriness in the turtles' attitude started to drop. They had all seen a couple of ratgons after the fisrst one they found, but they had later on disapperad. But the odd creatures seemed to come back. And they weren't a mix of rats and pigeons anymore.

"What- What is that thing?" Raph guestioned loudly. He had been the first to see the weird animal due him being in the lead of the little group during a run. To be more precise, he was chased by his brothers after Rpah had successfully tripped them all. In order to lose the others Raph had jumped down to the ground level, only to see the atrosity that lied near a dumpster.

Leo, Donnie and Mickey had followed him quicly down to get their revenge (they had decided a _very_ rough tackle would do it) but were also stopped in their tracks when they saw Raph unmoving and staring something.

Mickey had only caught a glimpse of the thing and decided a glimpse was enough. He quickly turned around, covering his eyes: "Yack! It looks disgusting and creepy! Please tell me it can't move, please!"

"Ugh, that's... uh.. Donnie?" Leo said, face full of disgust. He really wish he hadn't seen what he had seen. Not to show his discomfort fully, he faced the thing laying on the ground, but his eyes evaded it. A dirty plastic bag looked way more interesting at the moment and was way more pleasant to lok at.

"It looks dead to me," Donnie said to Mickey. The latter was very relieved by this. "I doubt it'll move anywhere from here. By itself, I mean."

"But what _is_ it?"

Donnie went closer to the thing. "Raph, lend me one of your sais, please," he asked. The thing, now with closer look, was obviously a creature. It was bloody and dirty and disgusting. No way he'd touch it with bare fingers. _Just the day to leave the equipment to the lair_, Donnie thought to himself. When Mickey had first discovered the ratgon, and Leo saw another one the same night, Donnie had made himelf a little kit at the lair to carry to the patrols for next night. The kit consisted of plastic gloves, little tubes to store little fragments of flesh, scalpels and scissors. In other words stuff that would be useful when finding a biological creature that was unknown to Donnie. He had carried it wiht him for the following nights, but stopped, as it looked like the ratgons were a one-time-thing.

"Like hell I'm givin' you my sai for you to poke 'round in that!" Raph declined loudly. "Serisouly, that thing is really freakin' disgustin' even by my standards. 'Sides, I bet that stink wouldn't leave my sais even if I washed it hundres of times – that reeks like shit."

"You want to know what it is, right? I need to move that-" Donnie pointed to a mess of blood, trash and what seemed to be guts that covered possibly the head of the creature. "-Out of the way. Your sais happen be the best choise for that job. And a smell is easily removed if needed from an object when right chemicals are used. For example alchohol works-"

"Yeah, yeah, just make sure it'll be _clean_ when you give it back," Raph said grudgingly, unwilling to lend a sai. But because of curiosity he was already offereing one of the two weapons as she spoke.

"And it better smell nice, too. Or I'll beat the green out of you."

"Uh-uh," the second youngest was barely listening, all his attention in finding out what the thing was.

"I don't get it. How's Donnie not throwing up his guts right now?" Raph said and walked over to Mickey. The poor mutant now was covering his mouth intead of eyes.

"Yeah, it's funny how he can't eat food off the floor like Mickey but _that_ doesn't bother him.." Leo replied, moving further away from the mass of disgust to his younger brothers.

"Yeah, Mickey, you al'right?" Raph punched the said turtle on arm, his worry fully covered in slight amusement. He had a name to keep, afterall.

"Mhm, yeah.." Mickey straightened himself. He felt bit nauseous due to the foul smell. "Can we just get the shell out of here?" he whined. The ratgons had been at least cute in a weird way.

"Donnie! You marryin' that thing? Hurry up!"

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Many thoughts were running trough Donnie's head while the group headed back to the lair. Donnie had explained to his brothers that the creature they had seen was a hybrid, similar to the ratgon they've seen earlier. He had guesses it was a mix of a dog, raccoon and somekind of feline. But it was hard to tell in bad lightning without any real tools. But the fact that they've found another creature, this time bigger and seemingly more dangerous, as well - the dog-raccoon thing had big teeth, though, most of them not in the mout anymore.

_Just who is doing these experiments? The Kraang Communication Device has been quiet for weeks, so I doubt it's them.. But what about he scientists they had? Wait, it coudn't be them, either. Anythig related to Kraang has mutagen in it. And these lack of it. Which only makes it more interesting. The kowledge to combine two or more species together to create on living organism hasn't even been discovered by the leading scientists. Or... That is what is said. A conspiracy, maybe?_

Donnie's pondering was interrupted by Leo: "Hey, you don't think there are more of those things?There were more than just one ratgon, so would it possible there are more of them, too?"

"Well, it is probable that there is. Actually, it'd be odd if there weren't. I tought about it back-"

"You thought about it!? And it didn't come to your mind to say anything about it?"

"I found it obvious! Utilizing more than one invidual in a experiment obivates the possibility of failure because of a unfitting invidual. At least, that's what I would do, and the person behind all this is obviously clever enough to think of that. Especially when the ingridients are so easily collected. And-"

"Fun, there's more non-English blabberin'."

"-_And_, it think the reason why the dog-raccoon died is because of it was attacked. You all saw in what mess it was. All those viscerals wheren't it's own: I think I saw parts of two different oesophagi. Also, there were teeth in the base of it's neck. And soemthing that I'm pretty sure was an mushed eye was in under one of the paws."

"Seriously, Donnie, cut that! You're makin' Mickey feel sick again and I don't wanna see 'im throw up."

At the mention of Mickey's name three other glanced over to see if he was all right. He had been really quiet the last ten minutes. Maybe the scene had been too gory for him, and the teen now suffered from it, making him feel sick.

"Mickey, everything okay?" Leo asked. They all were still jumping trough the neighborhood but had slowed down a bit. Their skatingboards were tied to their shell in the same way their weapons were.

Mickey just nodded and waved his hand, signaling that he was okay, and that he had heard what the others were talking about. The older turtles decided to shrug it out: Mickey would eventually get back to his old cheery self. This kind of silence most commonly followed after he had watched especially gruesome horror movie. A couple of hours of silence, then a chain of complaints, theories and more complains about the movie, of the actors, setting and plot, whatever that came to his mind.

"Hey, anyone hungry for pizza? We could order one on the way," Donnie suggested. Surprisingly the others declined the offer (Mickey was so deep in thought, for once, that he didn't even hear the word' pizza'). Leo muttered soemthing in the lines that he was still full from the breakfast they had before setting outside.

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AN: I should probably clarify that the Kraang will not be coming into the picture anytime soon (therefore, this is an AU, where things from season 2 will happen, like Casey and all, but no the Kraang). Only thing is that the Rat King-thing has already happened some time ago. He could surface again, who knows.

_~hammerQueen_


	3. Hybrid of Change

**Chapter 3: Hybrid of Change**

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_"So, I got this huge pile of homework, but also this new game, you know, and I know mother's not gonna be home tonight, either. Sooo.. What should I do?"_

_"Do what?"_

_"Do the homework or play the game? It's brand new, too! Just got it!"_

_"I dunno."_

_"C'mon, Ami, help me out here! You could join and all, if you'd like, too. Mom's not home, ya'know, and we could get snacks and all. My treat."  
_

_"Can't. Mom wanted me home tonight. Worried about my grades or something."  
_

_"Aww, too bad! I'll be playing the game, then. Tonight till dawn!"  
_

_"Cool. We part here. See you tomorrow, Adi."  
_

_"Yeah, 'kay. See ya!"_

That conversation with Ami swirled in my head when I walked from the last class to my locker. She hadn't been in school for couple of days, and my worry for her started growing bigger. Of course, she skipped some classes sometimes, but she'd has never before skipped two days in a row or leave my texts and calls un-answered.

"Hey! Adira, right?"

April O'Neil called out for me. I knew her by, she was really nice whenever we happened to talk. She had been acting weird, though. At least the last months. Her dad got kidnapped at one point, though, so that would explain everything that's been going around her, I guess. I tried to hang out with her more often after I heard she liked to play video games, too, and that she liked comics but I suppose she didn't like to hang with me. Every time I asked her to hang after school, she said she had other plans, or was already hanging out with some friends out of our school. I understood, of course. That happens a lot with me.

"You got that right! What's up?"

"You haven't seen Amelie lately, have you?" She looked bit worried.

"No, sorry. She doesn't even answer my texts, which is weird and al," I explained. "Why do you need her for? If I can ask, or somethin'." I packed my back and was pretty much ready to leave. I thought it'd be best if I visited Ami right away.

"She was supposed to be my lab partner in science. I heard she's lazy, but I still thought she wouldn't bail on this! She even told me that this one project she'd finish," April sighed. I didn't disagree with her. Ami was one of the laziest people I've ever met. And that's why she wasn't really great at school. Music was a whole different story, though. She really loved playing guitar, and was pretty good at it. "I wouldn't mind, really, but there's a lots of things to do. Would you ask her about this, please?" She looked at me with her blue eyes. She looked serious, way more serious than a normal student should look.

"Of course, I'm headin' at her place now, so no problemo, amiga." I replied smiling. I didn't bother asking her about her life, or ask how is she doing. She probably wouldn't want to talk with me about that, anyway.

"Thanks." She said and waved. She started to walking in a direction way off of mine, so I didn't ask her to join me to visit Ami. I smiled and waved back at her.

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I walked down the street to Ami's place, thinking why she hadn't been in school. _Maybe she's just sick. Like, so sick she can't use her phone. She had been more lazy lately, now when I think bout it. Or maybe, she got a new pet! A kitten, maybe, and she was so happy that she got a pet an- but wait, her mom's allergic. Oh no! What if her mom's sick? That'd explain why she hasn't called me, too..._

I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice where my legs were taking me. It was a small side alley, similar to one I should take before getting to Ami's. I must have taken one too early. Then I noticed a rat. I saw it a second before it crashed on a dumpster, startling me while at it. I went a bit closer to take a look, and was amazed of what I saw: a rat with bird wings. It was in a bad shape, though, because of the crash. But it also had gashes on it's body and was bleeding from it's face. It looked like someone had cut it. _Poor thing.._

I didn't know what to do; the ratbird tried to move around but couldn't, and it every few seconds flapped one of it's pathetic wings all while making a horribly high pitched noice. I bet it was from agony, and I though if I should try to end it. Right when I thought about that I also knew I'd never could kill, well, anything. Why would I ever?  
So I did what I could do - which was nothing. I settled to next best thing: I waited and watched. It grew silent after few agonizing minutes. I took a photo of it. Ami wouldn't believe what I saw without any evidence.

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I traced my last steps back to the route to Ami's. I've never seen or heard of a rat with wings. Maybe they're evolving? emHehe, just like Pokemon, right? That'd be funny. Maybe you could catch them with something like pokeballs? But, you would just probably hit them if you threw them with anything, and that'd hurt the ratbird and then they wouldn't want to be your friends. Especially the rats, when I think bout it. They attacked in big ass herds a month ago or so, and it was so scary! _They really must hate people here.._

The apartment building where Ami lived with her mom was in my sight now. What gave me the scares was the police car there. And I saw Mrs Greene, Ami's single mom in her late thirties, talking to an officer. I started jogging towards her, I needed to know why the police was there, and that everyone was all right. Mrs Greene noticed me, and just looked at me with eyes full of worry and despair. She shook her head, telling me to stop. I did so, and decided to wait. After a while she looked into my directions, and mouthed something along lines "Not today, go, I'll call."  
I didn't want to go, my body wanted to stay and my brains get to know what had happened. But I had my part of disobeying a parent, and I didn't like the consequences one bit. So I turned away and started walking. _It can't be that bad, right? It can't be the worst._

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My home wasn't far away. I was in in less than 20 minutes from Ami's place with normal paced walk. I guessed my mom was home, judging by the lit lights in our house. The fact made my day even sadder – I wasn't close with my mother, and she seemed to enjoy bullying me. I decided to get something to eat from a small grocery shop behind a corner: I wouldn't be cooking anything in the kitchen tonight. Besides, little trash food could possibly distract me of my worry for Ami and Mrs Greene.

After getting some chips, chocolate pudding and sandwiches I prepared myself encountering mother. I opened the door as quiet as possible, and took off my shoes. Fast glimpse on our open hall and dining room and I ran the stairs up to my room. All life of this sneaking around had given me a pretty solid reason to stay fit, and I also loved sports, especially running, so it was no biggie for me. I let go the tension I had gathered from the day, and tried to relax and not think about Ami at the moment. There wasn't anything I could do.

It was pretty easy, I'm good at relaxing and forgetting stuff.

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Feeling of cold air crept onto my skin, and I seek with my hand for the blanket. It was still dark, but so cold, and I couldn't find the damn blanket anywhere. The bed was also hard, and had lots of crums on it. Never eat on the bed - crums get everywhere!  
I finally rubbed my eyes open. And then the realization hit me hard on the face: I wasn't on my bed, not even in my house. I was lying on a street Castiel knows where. My whole body was sore and my back hurt like hell. The clothes on me were weird and defiently not mine. I started panicking, what had happened to me? I wasn't raped, right? I so wish I'm not raped. Oh, heavens, please!  
Still lying down in shock, I heard some noises and laughter arising behind a corner. People. Acting in panic, I ran to the closest manhole in lack of any other place to hide and managed to lift the lid a nit. Then pushing it aside I slipped into the sewers.

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AN: Little backstory for the future. And OC alert? It's sorta bitchy that in TMNT there is so little characters to use and all. I get so self-conscious using OCs :I

__~hammerQueen__


End file.
